The property management software allows landlords to keep track of all their tenancies, rent accounts and finances. Work out you income tax obligations for your rental business and even email the results to your accountant ready for them to submit your self assessment return.

Keep a list of contacts and set key tasks and reminders so that you never forget another important task such as having a landlord safety check done for all your gas appliances.

Unlike many types of property management software that landlords have to pay for Property Hawks letting software is always evolving adding new functions. Look out in 2010 for an improved tax and accounting package, closing and opening statements for your tenants and an improved service for letting agents using the managed accounts system.

Property Hawk's Property Manager 2.0 is the only FREE letting software developed by landlords for landlords.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Have a great Christmas and let's all hope we don't receive any urgent phone calls from tenants with blocked toilets, broken boilers, leaking roofs ............. or any other issues whilst we're eating our Ch.ristmas Dinner

Let's all hope that 2010 is a prosperous and healthy year for landlords.

Here are my top 3 festive buy-to-let mortgages from a selection by Moneyfacts:

1. Best Fixed rate product must go to Whiteaway Laidlaw Bank with their 5.99% 5 year fixed available up to 70% LTV and with an arrangement fee of £999. This is of interest to any landlord who want to make sure they are not caught out if interest rates turn.

2. National Counties BS are currently offering a 5.44% term variable rate. The arrangement fee is a very reasonable £995 but it's only available up to 60% LTV.

3. Principality BS has recently launched a very low 3.69% tracker up to 31/01/12. The downside again is the low LTV, only 60% and the hefty arrangement fee of 3.5%

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Most high ranking politicians don't have time for hobbies and pursuits other than politics but Property Hawk has discovered that after the stress of saving the banks from imminent collapse doctors advised Alastair to take one up to take his mind off his work and help him unwind.

Alastair who comes from a musical family and has some middle eastern ancestry has turned to snake charming to take his mind of the stress of the ever growing public debt burden.

"I used to play the clarinet at school and I've always had a soft spot for reptiles." He comments.

"It seemed a natural step to combine the two together. It makes me forget everything and just focus on the moment and getting the snake out the basket." He added.

When asked whether his new skill is helpful in Cabinet Meetings he refused to comment and when quizzed on another matter he confirmed that he had not spoken to Peter Mandlesson since taking up his new hobby.

She wants to bring the Cockney Sparrow project to your attention. Run by the London Wildlife Trust, this project aims 'to connect residents and tenants with the birds and wildlife on their doorstep.' See the details and photos here. Who said there was no connection between sparrows and property?

Residents and conservation officers are planting hedgerow species like hawthorn and blackthorn in and around their estates to create 'bustle-friendly' habitats beloved of sparrows. It's a great success.

The landlord involved with this is Peabody. See here some details about the founder, George Peabody 1795-1869, one of the great philanthropic bankers from an age when such people existed.

Landlords that are looking for distressed assets, is that the new name for BMV( below market value) or is it the PC term for motivated sellers? I don't know can't keep up with it.

Anyway a company that specializes in selling them, that is distressed assets is holding a conference to tell you how can get your hands on them.

The topics to be covered are:

The Economic Outlook For 2010

Why Now Is The Perfect Opportunity To Make Substantial Returns FromUK Bank Repossessed Property

What To Look For And How To Buy Repossessed Property Substantially Below Market Value

Avoiding The Legal Pitfalls And Managing Risk

How To Pay Less Property Tax

A Property Investment Strategy For A New Era

How To Raise Finance in 2010

Renting Your Property: Getting The Best From Your Lettings Agent

Ask the Panel Session Q&A

All this comes at the knock down price of £97 plus VAT for the day.

The conference is to be held in the London Hilton Metropole, Edgware Road on Saturday 30th January from 10.30am to 5.30pm and there will be the opportunity afterwards for networking with speakers and fellow delegates.

Be warned that somebody elses distressed assets don't become a chain around your neck.

The latest research on how these different schemes are performing makes interesting reading.

Firstly according to Mydeposits, their scheme ends in just 0.61% of cases end in dispute.

On the other hand Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) – which it is thought to have around 50% market share – suggest that 2% of cases this year will end in dispute.

Percentage success for landlords

Most interestingly from a landlords point of view are the differences in the outcomes of disputes, all of which legally have to be resolved by the independent process of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution).

The TDS – a non profit making organisation says that the results break down 50:50 in respect of decisions for tenants and landlords/agents both where disputes are found wholly in favour of one or the other, and where amounts within the deposits are split between landlord and tenant. These figures seem to be a bit of a cop out non statistics but they are what were supplied.

Mydeposits, which is the other insurance-backed tenancy deposit scheme indicate that 92% of all disputes end either in favour of the tenant or are split decisions. Not good news if you are a landlord. Breaking down the figures further, 55% of disputes are found wholly in favour of the tenant with only 8% found wholly in favour of the landlord or agent. The remaining 31% of disputes are split between the landlord and tenant.

Custodial Scheme - Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS)

The only tenancy deposit scheme which accepts deposit money the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) says that only 18% of adjudications have been fully awarded to the landlord or letting agent. In the case of 38% of disputes between landlord and tenant the monies have been awarded in full to the tenant. The remaining 44% of disputed deposits have been split between landlord and tenant as a result of the arbitrators ruling.

To find out how tenancy deposit arbitrators view a tenancy deposit have a look at our recent article on the arbitrators view.

It turns out that Gordon has a secret advisor and confidante. Non other than his pet monkey Fuddles.

Fuddles has been secretly helping Gordon with the countries accounts during the last 13 years. The problem is that Fuddles has a tendency to get his minus and pluses muddled up and likes to bang in noughts where he can. He likes the shape!

Fuddles has been part of the Brown inner circle for over ten years and Property Hawk is proud to be the first to bring Fuddles to the attention to the country at large given that he has played such a pivotal part in penning the Labour Party's carefully costed economic strategy.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

What do landlords think about the state of the buy-to-let investment market? According to the latest survey by the Young Group quite a lot!

It appears that landlords are quite opinionated people. I can't believe that can you?

Some of the most interesting findings from the Young Group Index are as follows.

99% of investors intend to hold their residential property investments for the next 12 months. 49% intend to hold their assets for at least 10 years (up from 44% in Q3 2009) and 22% of private residential property investors intend to retain their property investments for the next 20 years or more.

On average, residential property investors now expect to hold their property investment assets for the next 12 years, two years longer than this time last year.

59% of investors are considering purchasing additional residential property assets within London over the next 12 months, compared to 43% who are looking at opportunities in the UK outside of the capital. This compares to 33% and 8%, respectively, in Q4 2008 and is a continuation of last quarter’s upward trend.

The outlook for London property prices remains stable and is stronger than for the rest of the UK . 76% of investors believe that London prices will be at current levels or higher by this time next year (up from a low of 36% this time last year).

An increasingly large proportion of respondents (60% in Q4 2009, compared to 51% in the previous quarter) believe that UK property prices outside of the capital will rise within the next 12 months.

The expectation for the pace of property price recovery remains conservative. Landlords predict that average property prices across London will stand 0.7% higher by the end of 2010 – but that outside the capital, the UK will see a fall of 1.0% over the same period.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 76% of respondents expect the Bank of England base rate to be higher than the current all time low of 0.5% by the end of 2010. But only 6% of respondents believe that it will have risen to more than 2.0% by the end of 2010, well below the long term average of 5.0%.

Despite reports of mortgage finance becoming more widely available of late, 39% of respondents cite a lack of appropriate mortgage finance as their current main concern, compared to just 28% this time last year.

Pointing to an increasingly positive outlook towards property prices, currently only 16% of landlords are hoping to see greater house price stability in the New Year, a marked swing from the 36% who hoped for increasing stability in Q4 2008.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Zara Phillips, 2006 World Eventing Champion and BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is building her first home abroad in Portugal.

She has chosen CampoReal a site used in centuries past by Portuguese Kings to exercise their horses and is located just thirty minutes north of the capital Lisbon .

With the renovation of her Cheltenham property now well underway, the villa in Portugal will be Zara’s first new build property. She is currently working with the architect on site to create a villa that will take full advantage of its unique position in the resort.He villa is to be built on the edge of the vine fields and she and her England rugby playing partner Mike Tindall when they are not relaxing; aim to improve their golfing handicap on the complexes golf course.

Paul Shamplina, co-founder and director of Landlord Action, a company specialising in tenant eviction, comments on the announcement that the Government will review the tenant’s right to choose if their rent can be paid directly to their landlord.

“The government have acknowledged that they will be looking at the possibility of re-instating the choice for tenants receiving Local Housing Allowance to have their rent paid directly to their landlords. In our opinion, this is a must. At Landlord Action, since the rule change in April 2008, we have seen a huge increase in possession actions against tenants who have withheld rent and not passed on to the landlord. The law was brought in to empower tenants and make them feel part of the buy to let market place and there are many good tenants that are honest and pay the allowance over to the landlords.

Under the current law the landlords can only claim Local Housing Allowance direct from their tenant if that tenant is considered to be vulnerable, i.e they have problems with drink, drugs or mental issues. One problem we have found is that a landlord may have a tenant in debt which is unknown to them or the local council and if that tenant does not pass on their Local Housing Allowance, is this not deemed vulnerable? This is where the current difficulty lies and is the most complained about problem for landlords nationwide. We have come across many landlords in this situation who are having difficulties in paying their mortgage, therefore incurring debts of their own.”'.

Foxtons has won leave to appeal against part of a High Court decision made earlier this year over the fairness of charging renewal fees.

In an earlier case the court made several judgements about letting agent renewal fees. A practice whereby a letting agent charges a renewal fee even where the tenant remains after the first fixed term tenancy and has taken responsibility for managing their own rental property.

In this earlier case, in July, the court did not decide whether charging renewal fees was unfair, but said that the practice must be made absolutely clear and must not be hidden away in the small print. Otherwise, the judge warned, the fees were a timebomb or a trap.

The right to appeal has now been granted to Foxtons.Landlord insurance- where do professional landlords go?

Principality BS has just released a market leading variable tracker buy-to-let mortgage.

In fact it is offering two new variable tracker rate buy-to-let mortgages that cater for most landlords needs: one has a lower rate and a higher fee, the other has a slightly higher rate with a lower fee.

The lowest rate is priced at 3.69% to 31 January 2012 and has a fee of 3.5% of advance.

It is only available up to 60% loan-to-value, but it is open to first and second time buyers as well as for remortgage.

According to Moneyfacts this buy-to-let mortgage has the lowest rate for its term and the company has therefore given it four out of five stars.

Ring 01424 205 373 or email to find out more on these products or to discuss other options. ref - PropertyHawk for No Broker Fee OfferTHIS DOCUMENT AND OTHER DOCUMENTS PROVIDED ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THE INFORMATION SHOULD NOT BE INTERPRETED TO BE A COMMITMENT ON THE PART OF RESIDENT BROKER LTD. RESIDENT BROKER LTD CANNOT GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OF ANY INFORMATION PRESENTED AFTER THE DATE OF PUBLICATION. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE USER ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE ACCURACY AND THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT.

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.

The Stig has been beavering away in his holiday home in New Zealand. Apparently the sun is shining and the birds are tweeting in Wairarapa. In between spells on his hammock he has managed to bring in a new TAX tab in the property management software.

This should make filling out your tax reform even more straightforward. Have a look.

Right, I'm off to fill in my loan interest for tax year 08/09. Remember when calculating this you can only include the interest paid and not any element of capital repayment. Also because of the tax year starting on the 6th April and finishing on the 5th you will have to aportion the interest payments for April 08 and 09.

Is there anybody who supports the governments position of not allowing direct payments of benefit now called the Local Housing Allowance to landlords. If so I can't find them.

The charity Shelter who represents the views and interests of tenants has never been a fan of the LHA. They have released a report that show that a quarter of tenants have fallen behind on their rental payments.

The government have finally woken up to the concept that they may have got it wrong!

Have they not heard the chorus of concern by industry experts and landlords since they originally trialed the LHA telling them getting rid of direct payments would simply not work for a significant minority of tenants.

My plee to government - if you ask for views - this time can you listen rather than trying to ramm through your ideological and dogmatic policy at any costs. Lets get real.....for a change.

Shelter's Director of Policy and Campaigns, Kay Boycott, said: "LHA was intended to introduce desperately needed reform to housing benefit. While we support the original principles of the system, LHA is currently failing tenants and landlords. Our research shows the government must make urgent changes to LHA to ensure claimants do not continue to be disadvantaged."

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Landlords looking to upgrade their boiler in 2010 may have heard of the recent announcement by the government to bring in a boiler scrapage scheme, similar to the one introduced this year for cars.

There are estimated to be 4.2m band G boilers which fall into the least energy efficient category. The government in their pre-budget report has committed to providing a one of scrappage payment of £400 per boiler for households wishing to scrap this category of boiler. The sum of £85 million has been made available for up to 125,000 households to replace their old boilers.

The details of the boiler scrapage scheme have yet to be thrashed out and will not be available until April 2010.

Npower has also announced a boiler scrapage scheme offering £400 towards any new boiler installed by their partnering company Hometeam.

Could this be a boiler bonanza?

Some pundits have already been speculating that combining the two schemes could easily cover the purchase cost of a new boiler which can be bought for around £700.

However, before landlords get too excited about the prospect of a free boiler I would point out a few potential drawbacks:

Firstly, until the conditions of the scheme come out next year we don't know as yet whether landlords will be eligible. I can't see why they shouldn't be but there could be a condition that it only applies to owner occupants.

Secondly, there are only 125,000 grants available so if the scheme is popular you still might not get selected.

Thirdly, if you do try and use the NPower offer than using their appointed installer will inevitably mean that you are going to pay over the odds for the boiler and the installation. If British Gas are anything to go by this will work out far more than the £400 they have promised for the boiler scrappage.

Finally, with the likely rush on as a result of the new scheme the chances of any of use being able to get a plumber will like be trying to find a snow flake in July. So what will plumbers do? Yep put up their rates.

For landlords looking to upgrade their boilers in the new year than the scrappage scheme may be able to save them a few hundred quid, but maybe it won't be the boiler bonanza that some have suggested.

With over supply of rental properties because of the accidental landlord reducing and rental demand remaining high my feeling is that the outlook for landlords is not so bleak.

ARLA are also worried about increasing repossessions in the buy-to-let sector, but as far as I can see as long as interest rates remain low, cashflow is good so financial pressure on most landlords should be minimal providing you can avoid the curse of the void!

What may be spooking them more is that many landlords are figuring that letting their property and managing them is not such a big deal and therefore doesn't warrant shelling out 10-15% of your rental income on employing a letting agent.

This is not so good for their letting agent members business; but that doesn't mean life as a landlord can't be good in 2010.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Any landlords who have been the subject of 'water boarding' ; a topic that we have recently reported on where over zealous collection companies try to collect monies from a landlords after footloose tenants do a runner. May be asking who's fault is all of this?

Legislation change

Well one aspect of government policy which certainly hasn't helped is the governments banning in 1999 the practice of total disconnection as an option for the water companies who are faced with users who refuse to pay their bill.

This said to be one of the reasons for bad water debts rising from around £684 million to a massive £1.2 billion.

Another is that water users are not obliged to give their personal details in order to obtain a supply. This means that water companies often have very few details by which to try and trace a potential non payer.

Surely the government must have seen this coming. If you remove a companies right to remove their services for non payment as a last resort then less scrupulous individuals know this and know that they are beyond the normal powers of enforcement.

Yet another idiotic policy where short term populism was placed before a creditable approach. The result is that water bill payers are now paying £12 extra a year to compensate for this growing debt.

Let's hope that the government will adopt some of the proposals of the Walker Review in particular forcing persistent non payers to pay up by giving the companies the ability to take the offenders to court or remove the service or both. Essentially let's ensure that landlords are no longer being put under duress just because their tenants abuse a system which no longer have sufficient checks and balances in it because of idiot policy making.

I've just received another whining press release from the "Hip Reform Group" trying to get some support for their campaign to save themselves following the news that the Tories are going to get rid of them.

Talk about a self serving joke of an industry sector.

They even call themselves the "Hip Reform Group" which makes me think that even they dont think HIPs as they stand work very well.

If you are at all interested in saving this joke industry go and listen to their bleating cries as they limp towards the grave.

Read their latest whinging release below. You could cry for them if they weren't such a complete waste of time and money. Bless!

Here they whinge -

"We wrote earlier this week to inform you of the establishment of an action group – www.hipreformgroup.com - that has been formed to act as a focus point for those within the industry who believe that the abolition of home information packs would not be a positive step for either the industry or the consumer.

Those who advocate abolition are aggressive in their attack on the industry labelling us in some reports this week as ‘parasitic’ and calling upon us to ‘get real jobs’!As can be seen there is a lot of anger out there!

Our primary aim is to inform and to press for reform on the back of the HIP. There is reference to a ‘fighting fund’ - this is not a main priority and hopefully will not put supporters off from registering their support.

It’s FREE to join and only takes a few seconds! Unless we all join together and show that we are united in our belief and actions, I am afraid there appears little hope for us as an industry if the Conservative Party is elected. Please therefore register if you have not already done so and also call upon family, friends, colleagues, customers and suppliers who support the aim to join up and help us get our voice heard."

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The government was accused of being “sluggish” in its response to the to the private rented sector in last weeks Pre-Budget Report.

In the report, the government today said it would issue a consultation paper following the recommendations from Dr Julia Rugg on the private rental sector early next year.

It said the paper would consider the “contribution the private rented sector could make to addressing demand and increasing housing supply and any barriers to investment”.

However, the British Property Federation branded the government “sluggish”, and said it was disappointed in the response to the Rugg reccomendations and also to the HCA’s Private Rental Sector Initiative.

The Manchester BS has returned to the buy-to-let mortgage market with a competitively priced 5.99% fixed rate 3 year deal.

It is available up to 70% LTV, has a fixed £999 fee and has been rated as a 'Best Buy' by Moneyfacts.

NEW FIXED RATE MORTGAGES for second time buyers & remortgage only: 5.74% for 3 years, max 65%, fee £999, reverts to a managed rate of 5.49%; 5.99% for 3 years, max 70%, fee £999, reverts to a managed rate of 5.74%. W.e.f. 10.12.09.

We have reported before that the Tories are intending to scrap the much criticised HIPs

Good! Would anybody mourne their passing? Would any buyer be urging the seller to get them a HIP before they really decided to buy a property. Off course they wouldn't.

It turns out that there is one group who will be sad to see them go. The HIP surveyors. As far as I know I don't think they wear dandy boots and fur coats - but who knows?

It turns out that they want to keep them because......................they'll be out of a job without them. Fair does, I'm sorry on a personal level if that happens but if we run an economy just to create useless meaningless jobs we'll never get out of this economic mess.

No guys the HIPs just gotta go!

If you want to know what a HIP club looks like have a look at their website